Animated clown board



Dec. 29, 1964 H. R. ELISCHER ANIMATED CLOWN BOARD 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 31, 1963 INVENTOR. HE/YfifZZ/SCHH? I Ta. 115

United States Patent 3,162,977 ANEMATED (ZLOWN BGARD Henry R. Eiischer, 322 Charing Cross Road, Elk Grove Village, ill. Filed Jan. 31, 1963, Ser. No. 255,311 1 Claim. (Cl. 46-189) The present invention relates to toys, and more particulmly to such toys which are made out of paper board, plastic, fiber etc., and which may be provided with animated, lighted and audible cartoons of circus animals and clowns.

The primary object of this invention is the provision of color cartoons imprinted or embossed upon the surface of paper board, plastic or fiber and which may be used in three dimensional toys made in the form of cubes, rectangular boxes, pyramidal forms etc.

Another object of this invention is to provide animation in toys formed out of card board, plastic, fiber etc., which may be inexpensive to manufacture, and easy and safe to operate.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of toys provided with sound effects coupled together with special light effects.

An additional object of this invention is to provide an electric circuit to operate said light and sound effects.

A further object of the present invention is the provision of push buttons to operate the toy and to produce animation and various light and sound effects.

This invention also consists in certain other features of construction, and the combination and arrangement of several parts, to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and specifically pointed out in the appended claim.

In describing the invention in detail, references will be had to the accompanying drawings where like character numerals denote like or corresponding parts through out the several views, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective elevational view of the toy showing an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-section taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear elevational view, with the cover removed showing the circuit diagram in the toy;

FIG. 4 is a section taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a partial section through the solenoid operated mechanism providing animation;

FIG. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is a section on the line 77 of FIG. 6.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the animated toy 10, made in accordance with the present invention, shown in FIG. 1, comprises, in combination, the outer shell 11 of the toy preferably having a pyramidal form substantially as shown. The shell of the toy may be provided with four vertical sides 12, 13, 14 and 15 (see FIG. 2) somewhat inclined and being joined at the upper end by the cover 16 and at the lower end by the base 17.

A color imprint of the circus clown 16 is embossed upon the front side of the board 12 which may be provided with a pair of circular sockets 17 and 18 representing the eyes of the clown, and the crescent-shaped opening 19 for the mouth having the animated tongue 20. The nose 21 of the clown may be formed out of a small circular rubber balloon which may be secured to the board 12 by means of the flanged bushing 22 (see FIG. 4). A musical reed 23 is mounted in the opening 24 in the bushing 22 communicating with the inside of the toy.

A number of push buttons 25, 26, 2'7, 28 and 29 and 30 are provided substantially in their present position upon the outer surface of the board 12 to operate the 3,lh2,97? Patented Dec. 29, 1964 various animated features of the toy and its light and sound effects. For instance, the push button 25, by means of the wire connections 31 and 32 operates the magnet 33 of the chimes instrument 34; the push button 26, by means of the wire connections 35 and 36 operates the buzzer 37; the push button 27, by means of the wire connections 38 and 39 operates the buzzer 40; the push button 28, by means of the wire connections 41 and 42 operates the solenoid 43 (see FIG. 5 the push button 29, by means of the wire connections 45 and 46 and its metallic socket 49 operates the electric bulb 47 in the right eye socket 18 of the clown; while the pushbutton 48, by mean-s of the wire connections 49a and 50 operates the light bulb 51 in the left eye socket 17 in the clown (see FIG. 1).

In addition it may be seen that a wire connection 51a connects the solenoid coil 43 to the buzzer 37; a wire connection 52 connects the solenoid 43 to the buzzer 40; and a wire connection 53 connects the magnet 33 to the minus pole M of the dry cell battery B; while the wire connection 50, by means of the contact 51b connects to the plus pole P of the dry cell battery. The battery B is mounted to the bottom section 17 of the toy by means of the elongated sheet metal bracket 54 which carries the minus contact pole 55.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 5 which is a partial section through the solenoid operated mechanism providing animation for the tongue 20, the former mainly consists of the electromagnet 43 having a wire coil 43a which is wound upon the upright spool 43b and which, by means of the U-shaped sheet metal bracket 430 is mounted to the board 11 substantially as shown. The solenoid 43 is provided with the moving armature or core 43d which is slideably mounted in the hole 43f of the spool 43b. It can be seen that the tongue 20 is provided with an extension 21a. A spring 21b is held with one end thereof to the extension 2101 and by the other end to the bracket 43c. The solenoid core 43d slides in the hole 43] when the coil 43a is energized. The spring 2112 supplies the necessary tension to return the core 43d to its inoperative position when the supply of current to the coil 43a has been discontinued.

In FIG. 6 which is a section taken on the line 66 of FIG. 1, and in FIG. 7, there is shown a sound effect mechanism which mainly consists of the manually operated knob 58 coupled to the shaft 59; the latter passing through the opening 60 in the board 11. A disk 61 may be mounted upon the board 11 and may be provided with a plurality of upright studs 62. The shaft 59 may be coupled to the hub 63 and may be provided with a two pronged flat-shaped spring 64-. From FIG. 6 it can be seen that either of the extreme ends 64a and 64b of the spring 64 slightly contact the upright studs 62 on the disk 61 so that when the spring 64 is turned around by means of the shaft 59 and the knob 58, the ends 64a and 64b ride over the uprights 62 to produce a grinding sound effect. To operate the reed 23 in the clowns nose, the rubber balloon 21 is depressed. The toy 10 is provided with the handle 11a mounted upon the handle bars 11:).

A careful examination of the foregoing description in conjunction with the invention as illustrated in the drawings will enable the reader to obtain a clear understanding and impression of the alleged features of merit and novelty sufficient to clarify the construction of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

Minor changes in shape, size, materials and rearrangement of parts may be resorted to in actual practice as long as no departure is made from the invention claimed.

What I claim is:

In a toy of the class described, comprising, in combination, a pyramidal housing provided with the face of 3 4 a clownembossed in colors thereupon, a sound effect References (Iitezl hy the Examiner device Within said housing, said device having an operat- UNITED STATES PATENTS ing shaft provided with a knob, a hub secured to said shaft and being rotated by said knob, a fiait spring held 2138367 11/38 Bonanno 46 226 2 A 2,623,328 12/52 Cox 46-489 to said hub, upright studs m said device and spaced from 5 2 64 222 7 the shaft a distance slightly less than the spacing of the 1 2 2 3 spring from said shaft, the ends of sand fiat spring con- 3:O99:894 8/63 Canon 1 7 2 46 171 tacting said studs and the rotation of said spring by said 7 shaft producing a grinding sound effect. 7 RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner. 

